Clinton will be in Australia to attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations. Rumors have circulated — which both sides have rebuffed — that the United States is concerned with possible budget cuts to the Australian military. The U.S. sees Australia as a strong counterweight to the growing military powers in the Pacific, including China.

Both Petraeus and Clinton would have testified in closed sessions.

While the replacements chosen to appear before congress are very high-level experts, some lawmakers and observers are not pleased that neither Clinton nor Petraeus will show in what some have deemed an extensive cover up by the Obama administration.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Clinton it was "disappointing that we have yet to receive any response from your Department and that we are receiving more information from the press than from the Administration," in a letter last week.